The Other Side
by PineappleKisses
Summary: Artemis's cousin, Annabelle, comes for a visit from America. The two go on an insane adventure which leads to Artemis discovering a shocking secret about his cousin. This is my first story please R&R!


**Chapter 1**

Artemis was in the airport with his family, much to his annoyance. His parents were trying to keep his younger siblings, the adorable twins Beckett and Myles from destroying the chairs they were sitting on. _Not even real leather, how exasperating,_ the young genius thought. He didn't even want to be here, but father insisted. "Arty," he sighed when they had been in the study last night, "we have to be there, your mother's brother and his daughter are coming from Florida. How would you feel if she didn't show up to greet _you_ at the airport?" _Just fine,_ thought Artemis _better even._

The truth was he was nervous about meeting his American cousin, not that he let anyone even Butler, his bodyguard and the closest person he had to a friend know about it. He had never even met his cousin, Annabelle, before. His mother had photos of her brother and his daughter that she put into scrapbooks, a new hobby of hers. From what he gathered of the small family, father and daughter were very close and traveled all over the world.

He wasn't sure he would be able recognize her. His brother Beckett brought him out of his train of thought. "Look a plane, a plane!" he shouted making an elderly woman stop and smile, reminiscing about her own sons, all grown up with children of their own. Beckett was right, the plane was landing and stopping right at the gate they were waiting in front of. "Oh, they're here" Artemis's mother, Angeline, cried excitedly. "Come on, Beckett dear, behave for your uncle. Myles calm down, and Arty…" He turned his face up, "Yes, mother?" he asked. "Cheer up, honey," his mother said gently.

As passengers began to disembark Artemis grew more and more tense. When finally, he felt he was going to explode from anxiety his mother cried out "George!" and ran to embrace a tall man whom he presumed to be his uncle. His uncle was dressed casually, in jeans and a light blue button down shirt. His skin was tan and he had a full head of thick chocolate brown hair, the same color as his eyes. In fact, he looked quite like a celebrity.

The man grasped his father by the hand and they greeted each other like old friends. "George, good to see you" his father said with a hearty laugh. "Good to see you too, Art, and who just may that young man over there be?" asked the muscular man. "Arty, come over here and say 'hello' to your uncle George," his father said. Artemis grudgingly obeyed his father and walked over to his uncle and said flatly, "Hello, uh…uncle. It's nice to meet you."

Well, poor uncle George had never seen his unusually intelligent nephew except in pictures his sister had sent, so he was quite taken aback by this greeting, but the young father didn't miss a beat in replying, "Well, it's very nice to meet you, too, Artemis. I have heard a lot about you." Artemis instantly decided that he liked his uncle. Well, as much as you can like someone you just met.

Two heads poked themselves out from behind their father. Uncle George laughed at this and began talking to the curious twins; introducing himself, gasping at how big they were, and other grown-up nonsense. Artemis wasn't listening though, because the whole time he was watching the door waiting for his cousin to appear. Right in the middle of Uncle George handing out toy planes Angeline interrupted and asked, "Where is Annabelle, I thought she was coming with you George?" George looked genuinely worried, " She was right next to me on the plane. I don't know where she got, too."

Artemis Sr. spoke up "Is that her over there? I'm not sure, it's been a while since I've seen her." George sighed in relief "That's her all right, my baby girl". As the girl walked closer Artemis realized she probably looked more like her mother than her father. She was tall and slender and had a certain graceful walk that looked like she was dancing. Her deep blue eyes were glistened under cherry colored tresses as she smiled with full pink lips when she saw the group. Lugging the cumbersome baggage behind her, there was quite a bit, she rushed across the terminal, as fast as one could go, and walked toward her aunt gleefully saying, "Thank you for inviting us Auntie Angeline, I've been wanted to come visit for a long time," Artemis was quite surprised by how she spoke, since he thought she would be a lot like the other tiresome girls he had seen using the words 'like' too often and saying abbreviations such as 'lol' and 'omg' every two minutes. " We'd thought your father had lost you on the plane," Artemis's father said.

"Where were you?" asked her concerned father. "I was in the plane getting all of the carry-on's _you_ left because you were so excited to land," the girl said as she handed a laptop case and a backpack to her father. "Hold on, I left mine on that chair over there," she called over her shoulder as she ran toward a bench. "Well, doesn't she have a lot of energy? You wouldn't think she's been on a plane for the past 10 hours," Mrs. Fowl said as she watched the girl walk away.

"Yeah, it's getting harder for me to keep up with her now-a-days," sighed George sadly, but lightly adding "I don't know what I'm going to do when boys start knocking on the door."

All, this time Artemis was watching his newly found cousin, laughing slightly when she was arguing with the airport police officer when he was taking her bags because they were unattended, and smirking triumphantly when the poor man walked away defeated by a fifteen year old girl. She came back with the bag, and for the first time noticed Artemis. _She looks scared of me!_ He thought anxiously. Meanwhile, the adults were catching up on old times as everyone walked to the baggage claim with the twins running ahead and Artemis trying to arrange his features into a more friendly expression. "Hello, I'm Artemis, your cousin." He said as he stretched out his hand. "I know, I'm Annabelle," she said shyly shaking his hand, " I just imagined you a little…differently so I'm kind of surprised."

Artemis was instantly curious by this and wondered how she had pictured him. He was just about to ask when Annabelle's father called over to them saying, "Come on, darlin' we don't want to miss our bags." Annabelle muttered under her breath "I hate it when he does that" and picked up her bag to follow the group of laughing adults.

Artemis was at a loss at what to say to his cousin besides, "Uhm, did you enjoy your flight?" Annabelle smiled and looked at him, "I don't really like flying, and since the flight was 10 hours long that didn't help much. I'm just glad to be back on the ground." Artemis chuckled before he could stop himself. Annabelle stopped walking and looking at him demanded angrily, "Are you laughing at me?" Artemis was shocked that she was so deeply insulted and tried to say something that would mend the situation, but nothing came to mind. Then Annabelle started laughing hysterically and when she caught her breath said, "Sorry, You…you just looked so stunned."

Artemis realized that she was joking and smiled, but it was then wiped away when he saw a group of boys not too far away. The reason he stopped smiling was because he noticed how they kept staring at Annabelle and whispering to each other smiling, and for the first time since he met her, Artemis felt very protective of his slender, American cousin, not unlike how an elder brother feels when his "baby sister's" date comes to the door. Artemis had never felt this way and soon realized that Annabelle had stopped laughing and was looking at him apologetically saying, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend you."

"Offend me?"

"Well, you just spaced out there."

"Oh," Artemis said, "sorry. No you didn't offend me. I guess I started thinking about something else."

Annabelle laughed, "Well good I wouldn't want my cousin mad at me the first time we meet. We better hurry though, my dad gets worried really easily."

"My mother does, too. Although I guess she thinks I'm old enough to find the baggage claim my self." Artemis surprised himself; _Did I really just make a joke?_

" Not my dad," Annabelle sighed as they walked toward the group, "he gets worried when I walk outside to go get the mail. Although, he seems to trust me with you."

It was true George seemed to be enjoying himself as he shared stories with Artemis Sr. without a second glance at his daughter behind him, even though her and Artemis were a good 15ft away with a crowd of people between them. "Well, _I_ consider myself very trustworthy." Artemis said with a smile in an attempt to lighten her mood. _Am I joking again? _Laughing Annabelle said, "You're a lot funnier than I thought." _What is it about this girl that suddenly gives me a sense of humor?_ By this time they had reached their family and all of Annabelle's and George's bags had been collected. They all were walking out to the car when Artemis asked Annabelle, "How funny did you think I would be?" Annabelle paused for a moment to think, and then said, " I thought that you would be stuck-up and serious. I'm glad that I was wrong."

To Be Continued… 


End file.
